If the democrat wins the conclusion will be that mccain wasn’t liberal enough because conservatism in this country must be dead. Nobody likes Bush. Nobody liked the republicans when they had congress. This is a bad situation right now.
Same ol' song... that was not the conclusion when Conservatives sunk GWHB, nor Dole, Nor the 2006 losses... Everyone knows what happened.
The only people who will come to this conclusion are those who don't have your best interests at heart to begin with. According to that mode of thinking, any loss means the candidate wasn't far enough to the left. Keep going down that route and you end up with simply proposing another left-wing candidate to oppose the Democrats' own left-wing candidate... you end up with a candidate just like John McCain.
What you lack right now is the confidence that conservatism unmodified is a winning agenda. To restore your confidence, look at the record of confident conservative candidates in the general election vs. that of the mushy middle types. The latter type, being difficult to distinguish from a Democrat, loses reliably. The last example of the former type we have is Reagan, who crushed the opposition.
Conservatism wins, it really is that simple. But we do require someone to actually advocate it. John McCain has stated in no uncertain terms that he will never be that person. At this point a decision has to be made by the individual as to which is more important, the cause of the political party or the cause of the ideology. I say that the party is not useful if it does not serve as a vehicle to advance ideology.
If simply being on a winning team is the most important, then the best bet is to sit out the election entirely and join up with whichever side wins. That way you can always be on the side of the winner.